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I repositioned the front shocks to get a better angle for the pushrod and it all seems to work great. With the shocks on their medium spring position the car hardly moves when I jump on it and on the softest setting it moves up and down an inch or so.Proving that those fat tires will still turn and clear everything, although the front fenders will need some serious re-arching to make the turns. I will most likely run narrower tires but I wanted to build the car for the widest tire possible because it's then easy to get narrower tires on there:

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Had a little drama with the back suspension today. At first I used a simple tube going from the front fuel cell mount to the back one and attached the shock to that. This was fine on the drivers side but the passenger side shock had to have the resevoir on the bottom, which then interfered with the tube. I cut all that work out and built the U-shaped pieces you see in the picture. They worked fine until I put the weight of the car on the suspension, which promptly bent the pieces down and twisted the rear fuel cell mount as well. I straightened all that out and welded in gussets and when I put the car on the suspension, it nearly bottomed out the shocks. This is strange considering that the same shocks when mounted on the front of the car (the heavier end) were perfect. I flipped the triangle shaped pivot around to reduce the mechanical advantage of the pushrod and now the rear suspension bounces exactly as much as the front suspension, which I think means I'm on the right track.

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I went in at 8:00 this morning to get some work done on the car before we opened for business and built the drivers side header. It was very, very difficult to get all the tubes in there and pointed in the right direction and the collector was right up against where the firewall needed to be. The pic is after I tack welded it but before I pulled it out for final welding. I welded as much as possible while still on the car then pulled it off to weld the back side, that's when the trouble started. There were a bunch of spots where I couldn't get the welding gun in at the right angle or close enough, resulting in welds I am ashamed of. Then, when I went to put it back on the car, some of the flanges had shifted and there was no way to get them lined up again-a lot of time and money out the window. That's the bad news, the good news is that this engine doesn't benefit as much as a V8 from headers because the exhaust pulses are so far apart.I also re-did the rear shock mount, it's now far stronger and weighs less than the previous version:

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Hey Mark, Dont be too hasty about scraping your work. Looks like you were using a TIG torch. You can make the same type of weld with an oxy/accet torch and a coat hanger. It is a slow process but it can be done. I happen to be an old vet at this type of welding if you need a hand.

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I worked on the brackets holding up the front fenders and supension, and I weighed the car again. The bad news is that it weighs 1800 lbs without wheels/tires/radiator but the good news is that the weight balance is 46% Front, 54% Rear and will probably be perfect once I add the weight of the rad and fluid up front.

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I'll admit it, staring at where a firewall should be, I am intimidated by how complex the thing is going to have to be. I decided to start at the back and work my way forward, so here is the transmission tunnel, done without a metal bending tool:

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Hey Mark,Awesome work to say the least. Bridg still talking to you:)lolLast build like this I was involved in was Wayne Imrie's 66 Studibaker Super Stock stock car. And there were 6 of us working on it!!! How did you make out with the headers? Does the trans hump come out? Guess Phil cant drive it, if he gets in we would need the jaws of life to get him out:) lolHang in there and keep up the outstanding work, next season is not that far away.

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Hey Mark' date='Awesome work to say the least. Bridg still talking to you:)lolLast build like this I was involved in was Wayne Imrie's 66 Studibaker Super Stock stock car. And there were 6 of us working on it!!! How did you make out with the headers? Does the trans hump come out? Guess Phil cant drive it, if he gets in we would need the jaws of life to get him out:) lolHang in there and keep up the outstanding work, next season is not that far away.[/quote']I only work on the car for a few hours every morning during the week so Briget is happy it keeps me out of her hair The headers have been scrapped, even if I used them, the collectors would be right against the floor about an inch from my foot and I don't feel like engineering a water cooled racing shoe. The trans hump is removeable, as will be much of the firewall for access to the pedals and bolts holding the bellhousing to the engine. The car is easier to get in and out of than Phil's Lotus, the only issue will be for fat people to fit in the seat or tall people to be under the rollbar.

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Built seat and seatbelt mounts today. I was planning on putting in a harnass guide bar and attaching the belts to the rear frame rails but looking at the instructions included with the belts, I noticed that I could wrap them around the guide bar. So, I decided to build the bar out of rollbar tube and make it look nice:

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I found a Ford 9" rear end on e-bay that was the right width, the problem was that it was built for a 2000 hp dragster. Here it is with ladder bar and wheelie bar mounts, I'm pretty sure I won't be needing those I sliced off all the mounts I didn't need, welded on the ones I did and cut holes in the braces to lighten things up a little. Here are the 4 piston aluminum calipers that came with the rear end, you can see the trick rotors on the left in the first pic:

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Ok, LOTS to report today. After Friday's big grindfest and weldathon, I had the weekend to ponder my work. It was bugging me that I left the rear differential brace on and that the 4 link suspension would bind when articulating. Then, the guys on the D/EMod Yahoo group pointed out that my 4" of ground clearance was double what I should be running. I decided to first drop the car to 2" of ground clearance then see where everything landed up. Here is the crossmember with 2 1/2" clearance:And the pedalbox in the foreground and oilpan in the background with 2" of clearance:And finally, I spent 7 hours grinding off and re-welding the work I had spent 7 hours doing on Friday. I removed the brace (losing several lbs unsprung weight) and changed the 4 link/panhard suspension to a triangulated 4 link (with no panhard, also unsprung weight). It now articulates nicely and doesn't move side to side at all.From the side, notice that I removed the bottom hole from the front mount because with the lowering of the car, I no longer used it:

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Some of my unpainted parts are starting to rust so much of my time was spent with a spray bomb today. I did re-make the pushrods so they have nuts for adjusting and the rear ones I made longer so they don't change the angle as the suspension moves up and down. Rear pushrod:Front pushrod:

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Nice updates' date=' Mark. 2" of oil pan clearance is scary! Too bad the header didn't work out, looks like an extremely complicated project in itself.[/quote']I agree, 2" to the oil pan is scary but the fast guys run that or even less and one reports that he has to keep replacing oil pan bolts. I will only run the car that low at Nationals and the car will be optimized to run with the low clearance. When running locally, I simply have to turn the pushrods and raise the car up to whatever height I want. The beauty of the pushrod suspension is that stiffening springs doesn't change ride height and lowering ride height doesn't affect the position of the shocks at all.

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Thank you I got my rivet gun working and the cover is all put together and suprisingly strong. I think I will be making a lot more stuff out of aluminium (I have to pronounce it the british way now ). Let's see, I can make a diffuser, airboxes, radiator deflectors, firewall and a few undertray pieces out of the shiny stuff.Also made a tow hook and discovered about half an inch thick patch of lead on the car:

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I agree' date=' 2" to the oil pan is scary but the fast guys run that or even less and one reports that he has to keep replacing oil pan bolts. I will only run the car that low at Nationals and the car will be optimized to run with the low clearance. When running locally, I simply have to turn the pushrods and raise the car up to whatever height I want. The beauty of the pushrod suspension is that stiffening springs doesn't change ride height and lowering ride height doesn't affect the position of the shocks at all.[/quote']That sounds like too much work. You should just dry sump it instead.

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Built a rotissiere out of two 1000lb engine stands so that I could paint and work on the bottom of the car(and any future race cars ) I'm not comfortable flipping it with the engine still in the car so you'll have to wait to see it upside down.